


Roommates

by XaviaAndromedovna



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Boys Kissing, Coming Out, Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Friends to Lovers, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Post-Season/Series 10, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 19:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10646058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XaviaAndromedovna/pseuds/XaviaAndromedovna
Summary: Donut comes back to Valhalla after dealing with the Director.  He expects Doc to be mad, but he gets an entirely different sort of greeting.





	Roommates

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "between seasons" square on the Medic card for RvB Bingo Wars! Set between seasons 10 and 11.

After helping his friends take down the Director, Donut returns to his home on Valhalla with Lopez and Doc. He knows they’ll fight about it when he gets there seeing as they left the medic behind (again), but really ‘fight’ is the wrong word. They’re both too passive-aggressive to fight, which isn’t the healthiest thing for their dynamic.

The thing about Doc is… well, they’ve been living together a while now. And it’s great! Donut genuinely likes spending time with him and they work well together as roommates. Roommates—there’s something about that word that just doesn’t sit right with him. Anyone who saves your life, nurses you back to health, then stays when you ask him to because he enjoys your company is much more than a roommate.

If Donut were being honest, he would say he liked the idea of him and Doc being something more. But if he learned anything in Iowa it’s how not to be honest with yourself. Anywho, his _roommate_ has been here long enough that while they usually get along swimmingly, there’s also a lot of things they do that get on each other’s nerves. Like how Doc doesn’t refrigerate butter or how he hogs the blankets or that time he burnt his great-great-grandmother’s mink coat because “fur is murder”. (He ~~broke up with~~ kicked Doc out for a week for that one.) And granted, Doc gets super frustrated with how Donut “drops everything for his team that doesn’t actually care if he lives or dies” but he just never understood his dynamic with the Reds. The boys love him! I mean, they have to, right?

When the Hornet drops him off at Valhalla, Doc comes out of their hut to see him, out of armor. “You came back.” His tone is guardedly neutral.

Donut takes off his helmet and hides his trepidation with a smile. “Of course I came back, silly! I live here! Besides I couldn’t leave you to play with your eggplant by yourself!”

Doc does something unexpected, then. He runs up to him, pulls him into a hug, and kisses him on the lips. Donut instinctively melts into it, returning the kiss with a fervor he didn’t think possible. Suddenly, his brain catches up to him and he releases Doc with an awkward grimace. “Nice to see you too!” He picks up his things and heads home, Doc by his side asking about the mission.

There’s something different about their dynamic now. He knows Doc is still upset about being left behind, but every move they make feels somehow more charged, more intimate. A brush of elbows here, a glance there— it feels dangerously exciting, like something Donut’s always been too afraid to think about wanting. He knows what it means, he’s not that clueless. But he doesn’t want his bullies, his teammates, everyone who told him he’s queer like it was contagious—he doesn’t want them to be right. He wants to believe that he’s just a really feminine straight man, because then he doesn’t have to deal with the full weight of their homophobia. If everyone already hates him because they _think_ he’s gay, he doesn’t want to know what they’d do if they knew for sure.

But that kiss lingers on his lips no matter what he does. He views their arrangement with new eyes. He’s been living with a man for almost a year now. (Or maybe a couple months; time is WEIRD in this part of the galaxy.) They fuss over each other and bicker like… well not Grif and Simmons-level married but a married couple nonetheless! Speaking of Grimmons, very few people they know are straight and cis. (Did Freelancer do that on purpose? Maybe they put all the queer kids together to get them out of the way.) Maybe they wouldn’t hate him after all.

He must have been quiet for too long because Doc coughs loudly. “Soooo… are we gonna talk about it?”

Donut folds clothes with more intensity than necessary. “Talk about what?”

Doc doesn’t answer, instead he sits on the washing machine and thinks for a moment. “Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

“I’m assuming you mean in Valhalla and not in a metaphysical sense.”

“Yeah. Why we’re here… with each other.”

Donut puts down the laundry and looks at his roommate’s soulful brown eyes. “I’m sorry we left you. I thought you were in one of the other—“

“It’s okay, I get it. Those UNSC guys were assholes.”

“It’s not because I didn’t… I mean…”

“I know. At least, I think I do.” This is it. This is Donut’s shot at seeing where this can go. He almost doesn’t take it, but he makes himself get up and tentatively lace his hand through Doc’s.

The question comes out in a whisper. “Why’d you kiss me?”

Doc murmurs too, honoring the fragility of this moment. “Because I wanted to. Because I honestly didn’t think you’d come back. I thought you were just waiting for your friends to come get you and once they did I’d just be some guy you lived with for a bit.”

He continues on, ready for his moment of truth. “But we’re more than that, aren’t we?”

Doc licks his lips as he looks into Donut’s eyes. “I want to be. Do you?”

For the first time in his life, Donut is honest to himself about what he wants. And what he wants is to kiss his roommate.

~~~

“We’re not telling the guys though. I wanna fuck with them.”

“Good, those assholes deserve it.”


End file.
